the preaching of the gospel: for by the gospel it is that souls are re- covered out of his power, Acts xxvi. 18. It is the express work of ministers "to turn men from darkness to light, and from the " power of Satan unto God." Satan (as one saith) is a great and jealous prince : he will never endure to have liberty proclaimed by the ministers of Christ within his dominions. And, indeed, wrhat is it less, when the gospel is preached in power, but as it were by beat of drum, and sound of trumpet, to proclaim liberty, spiritual, sweet, and everlasting liberty, to every soul sensible of the bondage of corruption and the cruel servitude of Satan, and will now come over to Jesus Christ? And O what numbers and multitudes of prisoners have broken loose from Satan at one proclamation of Christ, Acts ii. 41. But Satan owes the servants of Christ a spite for this, and will be sure to pay them if ever they come .within his reach ; persecution is the evil genius of the gospel, and follows it as the shadow doth the body.
Inf. 5. How careful should Christians be to maintain their spiritual liberty in all and every point thereof ! " stand fast (saith " Paul) in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and " be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage," Gal. v. 1. And again. " Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants " of men." It is Christ's prerogative to prescribe the rules of his own house ; he hath given no man dominion over your faith, 2 Cor. i. 24. One man is no rule to another, but the word of Christ is a rule to all : follow not the holiest of men one step far- ther than they follow Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 4. Man is an ambitious creature, naturally affecting dominion ; and dominion over the mind rather than over the body. To give law to others, feeds pride in himself; so far as any man brings the word of Christ to warrant his injunctions, so far we are to obey, and no farther ; Christ is your Lord and Lawgiver.
Inf. 6. Lastly, Let this encourage and persuade sinners to come to Christ ; for with him is sweet liberty to poor captives. Oh that you did but know what a blessed state Jesus Christ would bring you into ! " Come unto me (saith he) ye that labour and are " heavy laden :" and what encouragement doth he give to comers ? Why this, " My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The devil persuades you, that the ways of obedience and strict godliness are a perfect bondage ; but if ever God regenerate you, you will find his wavs, " ways of pleasantness, and all his paths peace : you " will rejoice in the wav of his commandments as much as in all " riches :" you will find the worst work Christ puts you about, even suffering work, sweeter than all the pleasures that ever you found in sin. O therefore open your hearts at the call of the gos- pel : Come unto Christ, then shall you be free indeed.
SERM. XIX. THE METHOD OF GRACE 279
The Saints coming home to God by Reconciliation and Glorification, opened and applied.
For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he miglit bring us to God.
J_ HE scope of the apostle in this place is to prepare and fortify Christians for a day of suffering. In order to their cheer- ful sustaining whereof, he prescribeth two excellent rules of mighty use for all suffering Christians.
First, To get a good conscience within them, ver. 16, 17. hie mums aheneus esto.
Secondly, To set the example of Christ's sufferings before them, ver. 18. " For Christ hath once suffered for sinners ;" the suffer- ings of Christ for us, is the great motive engaging Christians to suffer cheerfully for him.
In the words before us we have,
First, The sufficiency and fulness of Christ's sufferings intimated in that particle [once] ; Christ needs to suffer no more, having finished and completed that whole work at once.
Secondly, The meritorious cause of the sufferings of Christ, and that is sin, Christ once suffered for sins ; not his own sins, but ours ; as it follows in the next clause, which is the third thing here ob- servable, viz.
Thirdly, The admirable grace and unexampled love of Christ to us sinners, the just for the unjust ; in which words the substitution of Christ in the room and place of sinners, the vicegerence of his death is plainly expressed. Christ died not only nostra bono, for our good, but also nostro loco, in our stead.
Fourthly, Here is also the final cause or design and scope of the sufferings of Christ, which was to bring us to God.
Fifthly, Here is also the issue of the sufferings of Christ, which was the death of Christ in the flesh, and the quickening of Christ after death by the Spirit. Many excellent observations are lodged in the bosom of this scripture ; all which I must pass over in silence at this time, and confine my discourse to the final cause of the suf- ferings of Christ, namely, that he might bring us to God : where the observation will be plainly and briefly this,
280 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEEM. XIXV
Doct. That the end of Christ's eursed death, and bitter sufferings, icas to bring all those for whom he died unto God.
In the explication and preparation of this point for use, two tilings must be spoken unto. viz.
1. What Christ's bringing us to God imports ?
2. What influence the death of Christ hath upon this design of bringing us to God ?
First, What Christ's bringing us to God imports ? And certain- ly there be many great and excellent things contained in this ex- pression : more generally it notes our state of reconciliation, and our state of glorification. By reconciliation we are brought nigh to God, Eph. ii. 13. " Ye are made nigh," i. e. reconciled, " by the blood of Christ," Heb. xii. 22, 23. Ave are said " to come " to God the Judge of all.11 By reconciliation we are brought nigh unto God now ; by glorification we shall be brought home to God hereafter, 1 Thes. iv. 17. " We shall be ever with the Lord." But more particularly this phrase, " that he might bring us to " God,11 imports,
First, That the chief happiness of man consisteth in the enjoy- ment of God : that the creature hath as necessary dependence upon God for happiness, as the stream hath upon the fountain, or the image in the glass upon the face of him that looks into it For as the sum of the creature's misery lies in this, depart from me ; sepa- ration from God being the principal part of damnation ; so, on the contrary, the chief happiness of the creature consisteth in the en- joyment and blessed vision of God, 1 John iii. 2. Psal. xvii. 15. " I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.11